1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of telecommunications, and more particularly to a system and method of automatically obtaining consent to the recording and/or monitoring of telephone calls, and the creation of persistent records of such consent.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently there exist various systems for automatically recording telephone calls in facilities, such as correctional facilities, in response to various types of triggering events or conditions. U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,261 generally describes one such automated and integrated telephone call recording system, and is incorporated by reference herein.
One of the issues that now arise in the recording of telephone calls is a concern for the privacy rights of the calling and called parties. Various state and/or federal laws require that the consent of either the calling party, the called party, or both, be obtained in order to record or monitor a telephone call. This requirement pertains regardless of whether the telephone call is placed and recorded between two private telephones, or in a sophisticated integrated telephone call recording system, as described in the above referenced patent, or between such telephone system and a telephone connected to the Public Basic Telephone Network.
However, in the context of integrated telephone call recording systems, such as may be used in prisons, jails, or other detention facilities, the legal requirements for consent to recordation impose substantial administrative burdens and technical hurdles, without providing any specific details about how such consent should be obtained. The technical challenges include providing an efficient, fast, and robust system that can accommodate obtaining consent from different parties in any of a number of different languages. The ability to handle multiple languages is important since prisons house inmates speaking a variety of different languages. In order to meaningfully consent to recordation of a telephone call, an inmate calling party or a called party must be able to understand a request for consent in their own language. Administrative burdens include creating and maintaining credible records of which evidence of the parties"" consent can be easily established without requiring lengthy testimony by records custodians. Again, the legal requirements do not define how a system is to satisfy these technical and legal requirements.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an automated system which provides prompts for consenting to the recording of a telephone call in a variety of languages, either automatically or at the selection of a party to the call, and which creates and maintains useful records which establish the consent of the various parties.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention operates in a telephone system for institutions such as jails and correctional facilities. It allows administrators to control and monitor the recording of telephone calls made by or to inmates, to automatically obtain their consent to the recording of such telephone calls, and provides computer-based records which evidence such consent.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a system and method for obtaining the consent of either a calling party, a called party, or both, to the recording or monitoring of a telephone call. The calling party places a telephone call to a called party by inputting a telephone number. The calling party also selects a language for hearing various prompts provided during processing of the telephone call. The telephone number and other parameters are checked to determine whether the telephone call may be recorded, or whether recording is prohibited. For example, the telephone number may be recorded in a file as being blocked for recording. Where recording is allowed, the calling party is prompted to consent to the recording of the telephone call. Where recording is not allowed, a prompt is played informing the calling party that the telephone call will not be recorded. The prompt is provided in the language selected by the calling party. An indication of which prompt was played and which language it was played in is stored in a call detail record for the telephone call. The telephone call is then placed to the called party.
A selection of a language for prompting the called party is made. The selection may be made by the calling party, by a system administrator, or by the called party. Alternatively, a number of prompts in different languages may be played so that a specific language selection is not required. Also, a previous language selection by a called party may be stored and used to select the language for prompts on subsequent telephone calls. An indication of which prompt was played to the called party, and in which language, is preferably stored in the call detail record. The called party""s response to the prompt, such as consenting to the recording of the telephone call, is also preferably stored in the call detail record.
Recording of the telephone call, if allowed, then takes place upon the occurrence of certain defined triggering events. If recording is not allowed for whatever reason, then the triggering events do not cause recording. In an alternative embodiment, even if recording is prevented, for example, the telephone number being blocked for recording, the system administrator can issue a command over a network to initiate recording of the telephone call, and override the blocking restriction. Thus the network commands can override blocking restrictions on the telephone number.
In this manner, the system provides for automated management of consent to the recording of telephone calls. The present invention accommodates different legal requirements, including those that require the consent of the calling party, both the calling and called party, or neither party. The call detail record, preferably storing the identification of which prompts, languages, and the responses of the parties, provides a useful record of these facts. The call detail record can be easily authenticated in a legal proceeding if necessary to prove consent to the telephone recording.
The present invention may be embodied in computer executable software which provides the various functions of establishing telephone calls, selecting languages for prompts to the calling and called parties, prompting the calling and/or called party for consent to recording of the telephone call, and recording inputs indicating consent or refusal to recording of the telephone call. The present invention also encompasses a call detail record, persistently stored in a computer readable medium, which stores data for a telephone call to a telephone number indicating which prompts were played to the calling party and/or called party (e.g. prompts either requesting consent or informing that the telephone call will not be recorded), what language the prompts were played in, and whether the calling and/or called party gave consent to recording, if required.